Medicine & Disease

The Plague of London, 1665

Stephen Usherwood describes how an Asiatic flea, living as a parasite upon black rats, caused as many as 100,000 deaths during the summer and autumn of 1665.

Medicine in Ancient Rome

R.W. Davies describes how the Romans were often suspicious of doctors; and contemporary satirists, including Martial, cracked many jokes at their expense. Medicine, however, was now beginning to be practised on strictly scientific lines.

Empedocles of Acragas

Colin Davies introduces the Greek philosopher and physician who flourished in Sicily during the fifth century B.C.

The Duchess and the Doctors

David Green describes how, during her long life, the Duchess of Marlborough ceaselessly sought for a panacea against illness and disease.

The Black Death, Part I

Philip Ziegler describes how, in the mid-fourteenth century, about one third of the population of Western Europe perished from bubonic plague.